Officially, Luol Deng is listed as day-to-day by Tom Thibodeau and the Chicago Bulls. He was back at the Bulls practice facility on Thursday.

But he said he has lost 15 pounds though this medical ordeal — which was much worse than the flu that was originally announced — and he didn’t look like a guy who could play, or contribute a whole lot if he did.

“I tried to shoot a little bit and I struggled. I couldn’t do it. We’ll see,” he said after the Bulls’ practice Thursday afternoon at the Berto Center. “I want to play, but I don’t know what I can do. I haven’t done anything. It really sucks.

“It’s really my first day out of the house and out of the hospital. I haven’t really left my bed much or done much,” the NBA’s back-to-back minutes-per-game leader added. “I’m weak and I have headaches; when I’m moving around a lot, my headache increases. That’s really the main thing.”

Deng’s ordeal was not a lot of fun.

“It all started with I wasn’t feeling well. I guess I had the flu. But my symptoms were really bad when I went to the hospital. They wanted to make sure I didn’t have meningitis, which I’m thankful for. They wanted to make sure. I did the spinal tap and after that, I just didn’t respond well. I started having severe headaches, was struggling to walk. I started feeling really weak. I started throwing up, constant diarrhea. I couldn’t control my body really. Because of that, I lost a lot of weight. And still just trying to get back, just trying to get right. I still don’t feel right,” he explained.

The other key injury to the Bulls during these playoffs was to Kirk Hinrich, who had an MRI to look at his injured calf and Thibodeau didn’t sound optimistic he would be back for Game 3 Friday night against the Heat.

waitaminute, he went to the hospital and the doctors decided to go into his spine ‘just to make sure’?!?! wow, this is why i’m very weary of hospitals. Reminds me of the time my infant had a high fever, and the doctors were like ‘well let’s run a catheter up her &%&% just to make sure she doesn’t have a urinary tract infection’. WTF?!?! we just left. and the baby turned out fine. Deng should have given it 24 more hours.

works for us! have fun paying your letting doctors play with your body. If you seriously think everything doctors suggest is best for YOU, and not their liability, then we’ll talk more after you wake up

You were lucky and nothing happened to your poor baby due to your neglect. Don’t try to give other people terrible and potentially fatal advice. There is a reason that medical school is so rigorous, why they force doctors to do residencies, and, most importantly, why so much money goes into medical research.

I agree with everyone else here. Did you see the symptoms he was sick with? They definitely point to possibilities of meningitis, and usually if they get to the point of testing meningitis they’ve already ruled out enough other issues.

Living in Colorado I know several people who went to CU Boulder during the epidemic they had with it, and many friends of my friends got it and a few lost their lives, it is no joke and if they see the symptoms, that spinal tap can be a matter of life or death.

Let me guess, you’re also one of those conspiracy theorists who thinks all vaccinations are bad for you?

I’m glad your kid turned out okay, but I hope they don’t get indoctrinated by you to the point they think doctors don’t know what they’re doing.

…As mentioned in a comment above, in suspected cases of meningitis, you have to perform the spinal tap in order to determine if he has meningitis, and if so, what’s the cause of the meningitis (viral, bacterial, or fungal infection), and begin treatment based on that information within hours of someone exhibiting symptoms. Otherwise, meningitis can be fatal within 48 hours.

Deng probably didn’t immediately go to the hospital after feeling ill, so let’s say he went around a day after he began feeling sick. That meant doctors had under 24 hours to diagnose and begin treating his suspected meningitis. In other words, that’s not a situation where doctors can sit back and wait a couple of days…

It does seem odd that they did a spinal tap when the Bulls had several players suffering from the flu simultaneously. It seems likely that there was an airborne pathogen in the locker room… not that I know enough about it to comment. So… get well soon, Deng.

Basketball should be the last thing on his mind. There are things far more important than a game. Take care of yourself. Stay alive, get well and get better for yourself and your family. Forget about basketball and coming back this series. Just get back to 100%

@hwatt Have fun when your baby gets taken away because it contracted a disease that you didn’t feel like getting it tested for.
You think that doctors are eager to get into someone’s spine? With the high amount of malpractice lawsuits out there? You’re an idiot.